New DUP leader Edwin Poots faces same problem as Foster – the NI Protocol – and why he needs a different approach

Edwin Poots faces exactly the same problem as Arlene Foster faced. She may have been thrown to the wolves by the party because of her perceived ambivalence on the NI Protocol (back in January she seemed to be suggesting a make-the-best-of-it approach), but there is no hard evidence Poots has a cast-iron strategy for removing it. Which means the issue will continue to dog the DUP for months: and in dogging the DUP will also dog broader unionism, loyalism, the Orange Order and the relationship between unionism and nationalism in the Assembly.